Lubricating a Hardening Muscle

Installation 

artificial gut, water-oil-emulsion, used lifting straps, plastic-coated wire rope, collection tray, sheet steel, steel, maintenance sign-off sheet

240×280×110 cm

An installation realised for the exhibition Up Close - Goldrausch 2025 at Galerie im Körnerpark in Berlin, 18.10.2025 - 25.02.2026.

Lubricating a Hardening Muscle is a continuously evolving installation that examines the fragile dependence of human organs on assisted care, creating a hybrid space between the mechanical and the organic. At its center floats a fatigued organic-looking shell, stitched from repurposed artificial gut stained with petrochemical residues. Extended with mechanical lifting straps, it forms a prosthetic hybrid that embodies both horror and fantasy. Suspended in a pulley system, the organ is manually lowered into a water-oil-emulsion, moistened and lubricated during Service Hours, turning the hardening tissue soft and flexible. It reveals the entanglements between the human body and petrochemical infrastructures, highlighting the weight they impose on life and the precarious interventions required to sustain it under damaged conditions.

→ Service Hours

Performance

→ Service Hours

Service Hours is a public maintenance and performative activation. Each activation lasts around 45 min.

Special thanks to: Gisèle Gonon and all artists of Goldrausch 2025

Photography: Victoria Tomaschko

With the support of: Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt